Hello everyone in the whole wide world. Welcome to “Being a Dad: Part ‘I lost count'” Today I’d like to get something off my chest. Whoever came up with the name the “Terrible Twos” is a dickbag. The world terrible would be welcome. I was prepared for like, a fit here and there. Instead, my wife and I have been dealing with what can only be described as demon spawn. Don’t let the cute pictures fool you; At any minute Charlotte could go from super happy and friendly to “Dear God call the Exorcist!!!” Don’t get me wrong, I still love that little girl more than life itself, but holy shit. When she throws a fit she really throws a fit.
The onset of the “Terrible Twos” was sudden and surprising. One day Charlotte was totally fine. Napping without problems, sleeping without problems, eating without problems, and generally listening without issue. The next day, nap time was literally a battle. Getting her to eat was like trying to feed a rabid wolverine, and bedtime might as well have been my wife and I trying to get a lion to go to sleep only using a cup of milk and some stuffed animals. Ever since then it’s been tantrums and fits throughout the day and this has been occurring pretty much every day. There have been a few days where things have been moderately okay (Sunday comes to mind), but then yesterday Charlotte was rude, yelling, screaming, and generally throwing a fit once again when the wife had her do anything. We’ve been reading a few books to try and understand why she is acting like this and what we can do to try and mitigate and prevent the really bad tantrums from either happening to begin with or at least get her calmed back down as soon as possible.
Since I am (sort of) new to this dad thing, I now know that the reason my cute little sweet little adorable little girl goes from being funny and sweet to grab-the-garlic-and-the-cross-for-protection” is because her brain is making such a huge developmental change that she is all discombobulated (Fancy word, I know. Be jealous) and her left brain and right brain thinking are all thrown out of whack. Luckily, the books the wife and I are reading are helping us understand these changes and have given us some fantastic ideas on how to deal with these tantrums.
The book the wife is reading is going in depth about ways to use these tantrums as teaching methods and understanding the “How, what, and why” of the tantrums. the book I am reading focuses on how to speak to her when she is having these fits as well as how to try and prevent the really big tantrums from occurring to begin with.
We’ve had small victories in the battle against the “Terrible Twos”, but there are many battles yet to come. Hopefully we will both be armed with knowledge to give us a fighting chance in this war. Otherwise, you might find us huddle in the corner praying to be put out of our misery.
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